Family reunions on East Vandalia Street

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9:09 am CDT, Friday, May 25, 2018

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Family reunions on East Vandalia Street

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In recognition of National Historic Preservation Month, Edwardsville's Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) will showcase some of Edwardsville's historic buildings in a series of articles during the month of May.

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644 E. Vandalia St.

The Louis and Minna Bode Home

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The home at 644 E. Vandalia St. was built for Louis and Minna Bode as their retirement home. They purchased property in the Oaklawn addition to Edwardsville in 1900 and by 1903 were listed in the city directory on Vandalia St. It's not known if theirs was the first family home in the neighborhood, but by 1907 three of their children lived on the same block and a fourth only a block away. For the Bode family, it was a family reunion every day in their neighborhood.

Louis Bode, born in 1845, left Germany for America in 1856 with his parents and siblings. His father, Fred, died at sea, but the rest of the family made it to New Orleans and up the Mississippi River to St. Louis after a journey of nearly two months. The family soon moved to Hamel, Illinois, where by the age of 11, Louis was "farmed out" to area farmers to assist in supporting the family. While still a teenager, he rented his first farm ground and began saving to purchase his own land.

In addition to farming, Louis was able to increase his income by entertaining. Louis and his brother George were both talented fiddlers and much in demand at country dances. Newspaper accounts tell of the brothers riding long distances on horseback to play their fiddles.

Louis waited until 1864 at age 19 to enlist in Company D of the 42nd Illinois Infantry for Civil War service. He served until the end of the war with the exception of several weeks spent in the hospital after he was wounded on Nov. 29, 1864 at the Battle of Spring Hill, Tennessee. Perhaps he was fortunate to have been wounded then. The next day his regiment took part in the Battle of Franklin, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

On Oct. 28, 1870, Louis married a local girl, Wilhelmina "Minna" Take, at Eden Evangelical Church in Edwardsville. Minna was born in Pin Oak Township to German immigrant parents whose farm adjoined property Louis would later acquire.

After more than 40 years as a farmer, Louis retired to town where he became a bailiff in the county court. It can be assumed that he did this as a way of occupying his time since he was considered a wealthy man. The 1894 Portrait and Biographical Record of Madison County described him as a "worthy representative of the intelligence, the integrity and the moral worth of the citizens of Pin Oak Township... By a course of industry and good management, he has become well-to-do financially, and his fine estate of three hundred and seventy acres indicates to a marked degree to what good purpose the owner has labored."

The Bode family had six children, and all but one survived to adulthood. The two oldest sons, Julius and August, went into farming, and eventually purchased much of their father's acreage. The other three children, Adeline, Ella and Elmer, moved into town with their parents. The youngest, Elmer, born in 1894, was only a school boy then.

The girls though, within a few years of moving into the new house with their parents, married and established homes of their own nearby. In 1904 Adeline married a Pin Oak farmer, Gustav Holtmann, but almost from the beginning of their marriage the couple lived in town at 650 E. Vandalia, next door to her parents. Ella married Casper Vorwald in 1907, and they built a new home across the street at 649 E. Vandalia. Casper's brother, Ferdinand, lived around the corner from them at 128 St. Andrews Ave., and Casper's sister, Mary Vorwald Foehrkolb, lived at 663 E. Vandalia with her husband Andrew.

By 1911, August Bode had retired from farming and established a home around the corner from his parents at 136 Springer Avenue. Louis's youngest son, Elmer, married the daughter of Andrew and Mary Foehrkolb and established a home at 669 E. Vandalia. He later moved into his childhood home at 644 E. Vandalia where his family lived until the late 1940s.

Back at 644 E. Vandalia, Louis and Minna were able to visit with most of their children and grandchildren without leaving the block where they lived. Minna died of pneumonia in 1921, and Louis of a heart attack in 1926, but their family continued to live on the 600 block of E. Vandalia for many years to come. The house at 644 E. Vandalia was sold out of the family in the late 1940s.

The Bode home is at first glance a simple gabled bungalow. While the Craftsman-style is usually cited when referencing a bungalow, the elongated, enclosed eaves are Prairie-style elements that set it apart. This house, as well as the other homes mentioned above, gives the Bode, Vorwald and Foehrkolb families a lasting legacy on the 600 block of East Vandalia Street.

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Information for this article was obtained from resources at the Madison County Archival Library, the Madison County Recorder's Office, and the Edwardsville Public Library. Architectural descriptions are from Casey Weeks. Note that some branches of the Bode and Foehrkolb families now spell their names differently than referenced in this article. Spelling from the time period was used. If you have questions about this article, contact Cindy Reinhardt at 618-656-1294 or cynreinhardt@yahoo.com.